The Open Alliance - 2022 Highlights

[Ty_Tremblay]

The Open Alliance grew incredibly this year. With 30+ build threads, it can be hard to keep track of all of the great things the #openalliance teams are posting. Each Thursday, I’ll make a highlights post here so you can see the best content as voted by the community.

6328 - Java Logging Library

Introducing: Logging with AdvantageKit

One of 6328’s key projects this offseason was to develop our own Java framework for data logging in robot code. We created AdvantageKit, a library that we plan to expand with a variety of useful tools for building robot code. Lots of logging frameworks already exist in FRC, from built-in tools like the Driver Station and Network Tables to custom solutions for logging more detailed information. However, most systems exist around the same fundamental idea; record a limited set of values explicitl…

6328 - MoSCoW Analysis

FRC 6328 Mechanical Advantage 2022 Build Thread

Kickoff Weekend Summary Today we wrapped up our initial analysis of RAPID REACT℠ presented by The Boeing Company. For the majority of today we continued yesterday’s intentional absence of mechanism talk, however at the end of the day we started looking at some examples of past subsystems that may prove as a useful resource going forward. Like yesterday, all of our findings were published in our Worksheet. The first goal of today’s meeting was to break the game down into all the specific capabi…

3847 - Prototyping Videos

Week 1 - Spectrum 3847

2239 - Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

2239 - Open Alliance 2022 Thread

Team Goals: EDI Goals: Medtronic has requested that all teams, that they sponsor, create a Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. This was a great push for us to write down the goals we had been working on and hold ourselves accountable. Recruit 2 new female mentors who attend practices at least once every two weeks, at least one of whom is a STEM mentor and at least one of whom is a person of color, by the end of April Add skills of inclusion to our expectations of team leadership, by adding it…

2713 - Idea Latching

FRC 2713 iRaiders 2022 Build Thread

We had an interesting development during brainstorming yesterday that I’ve thought about over night. Idea Latching Brainstorming is supposed to be an unfettered flow of ideas. It’s popular to say something along the lines of Anything goes and no idea is bad. There’s always the possibility that your “bad” or “silly” idea is actually good, or inspires someone else to have a great idea. But what if that idea really IS good? So good, in fact, that no one else can think of an idea that is …

2877 - Six Hat Process

LigerBots FRC 2877 OpenAlliance Build Thread 2022

The LigerBots begin build season with a 3 day design process. Our team splits into 9 groups of 8-10 students (we have a huge team this year). Each group designs a game strategy and robot. Subteams such as CAD, electrical, and programming, are distributed among the groups to diversify the ideas generated and take into account a variety of technical backgrounds. After 3 day design, the team will regroup as a whole and choose a robot design to pursue through a “six hats’’ process which reviews eac…

4481 - Adjustable Collector Prototype

FRC 4481 Team Rembrandts 2022 Build Thread

WEDNESDAY - WEEK 1 We took a day or two to prepare our prototypes but we finally got around testing a bunch tonight to get a first feel for some different materials vs. CARGO on intakes and shooters. Intake Prototype 1 - Carwash #frc95 style Carwash style intake with non-slip drawer liner. These were mounted in a 3D printed adapter > 4 flaps. Looks quite promising but we need to improve compression and maybe 2 flaps instead of 4. [Intake Prototype 1 - Week 1] Intake Prototyp…

The Open Alliance Show Videos

71 Team Hammond CAD and Initial Strategy Week 1 The Open Alliance Show

3506 Yeti Robotics Traversal Rung and Hub Concepts Week 1 The Open Alliance Show

95 Grasshoppers intake Testing and Game Priorities Week 1 The Open Alliance

[AllenGregoryIV]

Week 2 - The Open Alliance Highlights

The Open Alliance teams have been producing some amazing work over the first weeks of the season. Here are some of the highlights from week 2, showing off multiple prototypes, strategy analysis, and more.

3636 - 24"x24" Robot Design CAD

3636 Open Alliance 2022 Build Thread

WEEK 1 SUMMARY Prototyping We assembled our first prototype of a hooded flywheel shooter based on 4255’s design. We weren’t able to test it out much but from what we could tell we’ll need a fairly high angle to hit the “fender shot” into the Upper Hub. [shooter prototype] We’ve also done some preliminary testing of wheels and surfaces against the Cargo. Overall, these are a very forgiving game piece in terms of grip and compression. They slide easily against polycarbonate, and can be squish…

3847 - Intake Testing and Climber Prototype Crash

Spectrum 3847 - Build Blog 2022

2022 Day 7 & 8: Intake Testing and a New Climber Concept Intake Testing We started on a more complete intake test rig with bumpers and more adjustability. [image] Video We are using silicone bands in this video, soft silicone has worked well in our past intakes (2019) and it appears to grip the balls well this year. Simple Tests A lot of our “prototypes” don’t need to be complicated to prove concepts. In this quick clip we used part of a prototype from 2020 to see how the balls would beh…

4481 - Intake Prototype Testing Videos

FRC 4481 Team Rembrandts 2022 Build Thread

QUICK RECAP A quick update on our intake progression! We’ll be posting our shooter videos tomorrow but those take a little longer to edit… At least I don’t want to get your bored watching a 2 minute video for 10 double shots. I’ll be quick cutting those tomorrow including results. We’ve been testing 5 different types of hood grip. 1 Neo vs 2 Neo All UPPER shots etc… [Shooter Editting] BOUNCING CARGO INTAKE PROTOTYPES We’ve been working with the idea of adding a top roller above our …

6328 - Strategy and Scouting Update

FRC 6328 Mechanical Advantage 2022 Build Thread

Scouting and Strategy Week 1 Update This past week, the Scouting and Strategy Team worked to further analyze the game as well as begin work on our scouting app for this year. Below you can find a summary of what we have accomplished, what we have found useful, and what we haven’t. Strategy Throughout the week, we looked at ways to gain further insight into the game as well as possible adjustments to our priority list. Early on, we looked at the Monte Carlo simulation made by Team 4926, which …

3512 Design → Machining → Assembly

Spartatroniks 3512 - Build Blog 2022

Design → Machining → Assembly I wanted to detail how 3512 produces the parts for our robots, and the process and tools that make that job more manageable. Part Numbers Like many teams, we use unique part numbers to identify every part our team designs. I’ve written a detailed guide on part naming schemes on our CAD Training site, but here are a few examples:

21-000-000

21 – The first two digits represent the last two digits of the year in which the assembly was created. 000 – The next three …

7492 Test Upper Hub Cargo Scoring Videos

7492 CavBots - 2022 Build Blog

Done! Kind of. I spent a few hours today running tests, and uploaded videos of a good chunk of them. To start off with, I took the pyramid out and just screwed a wheel to the bottom - tomorrow I’m going to mount it and power it, likely very similar to how it will be on the real field (based on AM’s model and gear ratio). Primarily, we shot from two places today: the fender, and what we’re calling the third zone. Basically, we have the field broken up into four rings, going from closest to farth…

The Open Alliance Show Videos

4481 Team Rembrandts Details Intake and Shooter Prototypes The Open Alliance

1339 AngelBotics OnShape of Robot Laser Cutting and Team Branding The Open Alliance

3847 Spectrum Demos Traversal Rung Model and Robot Strategy The Open Alliance

[Ryan_Swanson]

Thanks for putting all this together Allen! Open Alliance has been revolutionary for FIRST and my team has benefited significantly.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Week 3 - The Open Alliance Highlights

The Open Alliance teams have continued to publish excellent content through 3 weeks of the season. Below are some of the highlighted posts from our 37 member teams.

1339 - Strategy, CAD Details, & Designing TPU Wheel Tread

1339 Open Alliance Build Thread

End of Week 2 Strategy, Design and Build Update Strategy Hi folks, I hope that you’ve been having a positive build season thus far. This past week has continued to evolve our team’s understanding of the game, how we think it is likely to be played, and what role we see ourselves having in that game. Commonalities with games from the past are always fun to discover, and many others have pointed out that the end-game climb is similar to 2013, that the center-field goal looks a little like that …

95 - Part Finishing: Paint vs. Powder Coat

FRC95 2022 Build Thread

Let’s talk about part finishing. There are a lot of options for finishing your robot parts. Each has pros and cons of course. I’ll cover our own thought process in selecting our finishing option. Bare Fastest Cheapest Most durable Easiest to blemish Easiest to color-match Lightest Okay, okay, that one is a little tongue-in-cheek. But leaving some parts, or all parts, bare is a good option if you need to prioritize practice time, money, or something else. A pretty robot isn’t a requirement t…

4481 - Cycle Time Analysis

FRC 4481 Team Rembrandts 2022 Build Thread

CYCLE TIME ANALYSIS As promised in the last post, this one is going to be all about cycle time analysis. First we will explain the calculations of the autonomous cycles and then the tele-op cycles. In order to analyse the cycle times, first the cycle paths are determined and some basic parameters are determined. The following parameters are estimated before analysis: Robot speed: 3,5 m/s which is 11,5 ft/s Cargo collect time: 1 s / per cargo Cargo score time 1 s/ per cargo To illustrate a …

5987 - Strategy and Intake Prototypes

FRC 5987 Open Alliance Build Thread

We’ve been hard at work and have made a lot of progress in the past few days. Strategy Decisions (an overview) We had a meeting Sunday with the team leaders and mentors to choose the final robot design based on the results of our prototyping: We decided to focus on the high goal, as we are very happy with our shooter design. We want two hood angles to be able to shoot from a wide range of distances on the field. We decided to go with a swerve drive because we feel confident it will give …

2713 - Continuous belt telescoping climber with 3D printed belt clamp.

FRC 2713 iRaiders 2022 Build Thread

Our climber turned out pretty elegant this year. Building off 319’s experience with 3D printed bushings for their climber in 2020, we decided to make a single stage telescope with printed bushings. [image] The top will be printed PLA, but but bushing on the bottom of the extending tube is where the clever stuff is. [image] We’re going to print this as one piece, and it has the profile of the timing belt printed right into it. We’ll then use a long strip of 5mm HTD belt (15mm wide). We’l…

3636 - CAD Details and Strategic Design

3636 Open Alliance 2022 Build Thread

WEEK 2 CAD Review Last week I posted a deep dive into our CAD and design process, so here I go again with what’s changed throughout week 2. Electronics We decided to mount the battery vertically within the frame, rather than horizontally on top of the brainpan. This was to make it easier to hold in place during the match, as well as to shift weight downwards and towards the back. It also means changing up our electronics layout, which we’re still figuring out the best solution to. Right now …

6328 - Amazing software update with details on their planned vision system

FRC 6328 Mechanical Advantage 2022 Build Thread

Software Update #2: “One (vision) ring to rule them all” Last year, we started our vision journey by auto-aiming just with the horizontal angle from our Limelight. However, we quickly realized the utility of calculating the robot’s position based on a vision target instead. By integrating that data with regular wheel odometry, we could auto-aim before the target was in sight, calculate the distance for the shot, and ensure our auto routines ended up at the correct locations (regardless of where…

3847 - Full Climber Prototype Test Video

Spectrum 3847 - Build Blog 2022

2022 Day 15 and 16: Full Climb Video Climber Testing We added a crossbar between the hooks and moved our string to pull from around the lower arm pivot shaft and pull on the crossbar. This allows us to pull down closer to a straight line from the hooks to the spool. We also added some pool noodles so that if (when) this chassis falls off the bar it won’t be damaged as badly. [IMG_1432-X3] After some more testing, we were able to get a successful climb sequence. [[Screenshot 2022-01-24 224…

95 - How detailed should your design calculations be?

FRC95 2022 Build Thread

Let’s talk about design calculations. “Do the math” we’re told over and over. But what math should we do? How detailed should we make our calculations? What’s the tipping point between doing the math and empirical testing? I’m not going to answer all of those questions, I don’t have all week to write this post! But you should think about them. I’m a mechanical guy so I’m going to talk about mechanical calculations, but the same logic can be applied to any type of physics or system. Have yo…

The Open Alliance Show Videos

Catapult Prototype, Odometry and Scouting App 6328 Mechanical Advantage The Open Alliance

Rapid React as a Rookie, Intake Prototypes and CAD 8728 Argonauts The Open Alliance

Indexing Prototype and CAD Overview 3636 Generals The Open Alliance

[AllenGregoryIV]

Week 4 - The Open Alliance Highlights

6328 - Catapult and Drivetrain Progress

FRC 6328 Mechanical Advantage 2022 Build Thread

1/29: FUN, Catapult, Drivetrain progress FIRST Updates Now Interview We had a great time on the FUN Open Alliance show a few nights ago. We were able to cover quite a lot of information during the 20 minute interview including prototype, software/odometry/logging, and scouting updates. You can find the livestream VOD here, as well as an excellently shot and edited video that our Media team lead made for the show here. Pneumatic Catapult As mentioned in posts above, we briefly investigated th…

4481 - Launcher testing, Pneumatic Rack and Pinion Intake Deployment, and CAD updates

FRC 4481 Team Rembrandts 2022 Build Thread

FRIDAY - WEEK 3 It has been a while since we posted an update… sorry about that! The last weeks most of our team members were having exams and school work. Sunday Week 2 Testing We’ve been testing with various different variables on a 4000 rpm PI controller. CARGO with 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 PSI. Different alignments on the fender: left, right, from the middle Shooting with a cargo between the bumper and the fender Again smooth polycarbonate vs. ribbed rubber You can see all the different test…

7492 - Build Progress on their Hooper, Turret, and Intake

7492 CavBots - 2022 Build Blog

End of Week Three update Pretty long post here. It covers our progress in the season thus far, our next steps, including what needs to be done if we want to add a High or Traversal climber, and then at the end going into more detail about the mechanisms that have been completed but not yet covered in this blog. Yesterday we pulled a long meeting (from 8am to 5pm) and got a LOT done. We’re coming very close to being able to officially hand off the robot to electrical to do the final wiring. Her…

1339 - What I Wish We’d Done Differently

1339 Open Alliance Build Thread

Weekend Update, Week 3 [1339 Jan 29] Upcoming FUN Video Update We are hoping that when we film with FUN on Tuesday night this week, we are able to give y’all information that you want and need from us. If you have any questions you’d like us to prepare for (including photographs, videos, programming questions, etc.) please let us know here or via PM before our meeting Tuesday afternoon, so we can prepare. Looking forward to seeing you then! Twinsies! If you haven’t yet looked at the 7492 B…

3636 - Don’t Forget the Bumpers!

3636 Open Alliance 2022 Build Thread

Don’t Forget the Bumpers! Why and how your team should make their own A brief summary of 4 years of bumper experience by Zee Camp Hi Friends! This is your friendly neighborhood COO and self proclaimed bumper god of Team 3636, Generals Robotics. This week we have started (and almost completed) our bumpers for the 2022 bot. However, I want to take a step back to explain our bumper journey [image][image] These were our 2018 bumpers, a janky take on reversible bumpers - but these are also the…

95 - Let’s Talke about Batteries

FRC95 2022 Build Thread

Let’s talk about batteries. The battery is the single most critical part in the whole robot. The battery’s condition will affect every other system on the robot to some degree. We ought to care about it quite a bit! Our legal batteries are all AGM (absorbed glass mat) lead-acid batteries with nominal 18AH capacity and ~12V differential. AGM lead acid batteries are well characterized by industry at this point, I’m only going to be going over a few FRC-specific points. Would you like to know mor…

6328 - Software Update #3 - Trajectory Following

FRC 6328 Mechanical Advantage 2022 Build Thread

Software Update #3: “Follow the yellow brick trajectory!” This week, we now have a drivable robot, a prototype intake, and a motion profiling system ready to go. What is there to do but write a few auto routines? Even without a shooter, we can still test most of the important functionality. After some discussion with the strategy team, we began work on the following routines: One cargo (from any position) Two cargo (collect any of the three cargo around the tarmac) Three cargo (collect two ca…

The Open Alliance Show Videos

Two Functioning Robot Demos from 4481 Team Rembrandts Rapid React

CAD Overview and Scoring Prototypes 3506 YETI Robotics Rapid React

Initial Robot, CAD Overview and PathWeaver Demo 1339 AngelBotics Rapid React

[AllenGregoryIV]

Week 5 - The Open Alliance Highlights

3636

3636 Open Alliance 2022 Build Thread

WEEK 4 END OF WEEK SUMMARY For the first time in our team’s twelve years in FRC, we completed a working robot during week 4 of build season. [image] So, how did we get there? When we started this week on Tuesday, the robot was mostly complete, just needing some refinements to the shooter and the addition of the Mid Rung climbers. On Tuesday, we machined the tubes and gussets for the climber, and began assembly on them. We also updated the prototype shooter, adding reinforced 3D printed pu…

3512

Spartatroniks 3512 - Build Blog 2022

Week 3 & 4 Intake Update: Or How We Learned To Stop Ignoring Our Own Design Review As of the last post, the intake was still under design and we just started working on the CAD assembly. A LOT has changed since then and we are currently working on V2 of the intake, but I would like to detail the issue we ran into with V1 Intake V1 CAD We spent Week 3 refining the V1 intake design to a point where it was ready to begin manufacturing. Here are a few renders showing V1 in all its glory: [intak…

95 - Talk about debating

FRC95 2022 Build Thread

Let’s talk about talking. Specifically discussing/debating/arguing. We have a few basic rules when we have discussions on our team: Do not ask “what if…?” This means you haven’t thought about the merits or detriments of your idea and are asking the audience to do your thinking for you. Not a good look. Instead, present: “if we do A then X and Y get better, but Z might need attention to avoid failure.” This shows you’ve thought through some of the implications of your idea and have considere…

3506 - Build Update

FRC 3506 - YETI Robotics - 2022 Build Thread

Week 4 Build Update: Everythings finally starting to come together now! We finalized the design of our bot and assembled our intake (after redesigning it for the 2nd time). We also optimized the passage of the ball through the neck of the robot. After an extensive debate and a close vote, we decided on a vibrant robot name, to be announced soon! Design Concept: [|624x428.76137368934144] Assembly: [image] [image] Intake: The intake design was finalized, and we added angles to the top arm…

4099 - Build Update

FRC 4099 The Falcons 2022 Build Blog

I’m back! Sorry for the double post, most of the content for the week 3 update was actually done in time for the end of week 3 but I forgot to post it Anyway, after talking with the students before the season started, we decided that by contrast to last year, most of the blog posts would be written by students. I can’t see everything, and I can’t be at every single meeting, plus it’s a lot of work to write all of the blog posts myself. But I actually enjoy writing these, so I told m…

7461

FRC 7461 Sushi Squad 2022 Build Thread

Build Season: week four General Week Week four was one of our most productive weeks yet! We were able to manufacture and assemble our entire practice robot even though we encountered some issues early on in the week. Manufacturing progress Shooter We started building the shooter for our practice robot. We opted to make this out of wood to reduce materials cost and it didn’t seem to affect testing on our prototype. By the end of the week, this was completed and mounted onto our practice robo…

3847

Spectrum 3847 - Build Blog 2022

2022 Day 31: Design Recap Week 5 OnShape Link [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image]

The Open Alliance Show Videos

Robot Assembly and Demo FRC 95 Grasshoppers | The Open Alliance Show

FRC 3847 Spectrum CAD Overview and Chassis Assembly | The Open Alliance Show

Robot Demonstration FRC 3636 Generals The Open Alliance Show

RoboZone Show - 95 and 3847

RoboZone Podcast Episode 163 - FRC Manipulators for 2022 Game with Teams 3847 and Team 95